9-05-08, 12:19 pm

Joblessness grew by an additional 84,000 in August 2008, bumping the national unemployment rate up to 6.1 percent. This is the highest level in five years and the eighth straight month of job losses. The economy has lost more than 600,000 over that time period.

Hardest hit were manufacturing jobs and the construction industry, fueled by the housing crisis and more movement of manufacturing jobs out of the country. Economists have tied the movement of jobs offshore to the free trade policies advocated by John McCain and George W. Bush as well as to Republican Party tax policies that encourage the creation of jobs in other countries.

Manufacturing has been hit by job losses for the past 26 straight months, totaling more than three quarters of a million lost.

In stump speeches during the primaries, John McCain gave up on keeping manufacturing jobs in the country. In advocating free trade agreements, he said that jobs have been lost and more will be lost. He has offered no plan for keeping them here.

In fact, as recently as a week ago, John McCain pronounced the economy to be fundamentally sound.

According to government data, service sector jobs, which have been strong over the past period, also took a hit in the past month as well.

Demographic data covering the past year revealed that hardest hit during the current economic crisis were African Americans who saw the highest jump in unemployment up to 10.9 percent. Latino workers experienced an increase of two percent to a national rate of eight percent. Youth have seen some relief over the past year, but the unemployment rate for young people between 16 and 19 years old remains close to 19 percent.

In a statement, Christian E. Weller, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, said, 'Economists are still debating if the country is in a recession, but today’s figures leave no doubt that the labor market situation will feel like a recession to most families who work for a living.'

Christine L. Owens, executive director of National Employment Law Project, emphasized the growing number of long-term unemployed workers. 'The jobless are engaged in fierce competition for scarce job openings – and the ranks of individuals out of work for more than six months continued to grow in August, reaching 1.84 million Americans (the highest since September 2004) and 19.5 percent of the jobless,' she said in a statement.

Owens recommended further expansion of unemployment benefits. Democrats in Congress recently passed a short unemployment benefits extension – strongly opposed by John McCain and George W. Bush. Bush signed the bill only because it was attached to new federal spending that he favored.